The Lakers fired coach Mike Brown on Friday after a 1-4 start to his second season in charge.

General manager Mitch Kupchak announced the move several hours before the Lakers hosted the Warriors. Assistant coach Bernie Bickerstaff coached the Lakers in that game while the club's top brass began searching for Brown's replacement just 18 months after putting him in charge.

"The bottom line is that the team is not winning at the pace we expected this team to win, and we didn't see improvement," Kupchak said at the Lakers' training complex in El Segundo.

Los Angeles began the season with championship expectations after trading for center Dwight Howard and point guard Steve Nash, adding two superstars alongside Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. But the Lakers went 0-8 during the preseason for the first time in franchise history before stumbling into the regular season with an 0-3 start, losing to Dallas, Portland and the Clippers.

After finally beating Detroit on Sunday for their first win, the Lakers looked listless again in a loss at Utah on Wednesday. Los Angeles' defense has been largely poor, and the players still haven't figured out the new offense installed by Brown during training camp.

Considering their aging core of talent and a large payroll, Kupchak and owners Jim and Jerry Buss decided they couldn't wait another game to start winning. Brown was dismissed at a morning meeting.

"We're not looking five or 10 years down the road," Kupchak said. "This team was built to contend this year. There's no guarantee that this team can win a championship, but we feel that it can be deeply in the hunt. We're also aware that our players ... are getting older, so our feeling is that we can contend at this level for another couple of years."